Written by John Brice
The intensity sliced through any first-meeting unease, Shawn Stiffler immediately noticing a presence about Jack Penney as Notre Dame’s new baseball coach met one of the team’s core returnees from the Fighting Irish’s 2022 run to Omaha and the College World Series.
“You have to be really, really ready yourself when Jack Penney walks into the room, because you know that he’s ready,” Stiffler, a season-opening, three-game sweep at Rice under his manager’s belt to start Year 2 at Notre Dame, said. “I love players like that because you’re getting from them the same juice that you hope you’re giving them. From Day One, just his approach to wanting to get better.
“Then you see him work and you see his athletic ability. Probably the best hands and feet I’ve ever coached. The game is played at a slower pace for Jack than it is for the rest of the world. Just watching his feet and his hands work, sometimes I’m just in amazement at how he can read hops and go get the baseball.”
The feet and hands are getting a transitional test this season as Notre Dame (3-0) seeks its third NCAA Tournament appearance in four seasons.
Shifting from his command last season at third base, where he committed a scant five errors in 46 games, Penney has prepared to anchor the middle of the Irish defense since last summer, when he made the positional switch during Cape Cod League play.
Yet, in many ways, Penney has been preparing for these moments most of his life.
Particularly as he grew up around ball fields, saw his mother, Kim, a former collegiate basketball player and coach of Reading High School’s team, and honed a special bond with Pete Moscariello – the iconic prep coach in his hometown for whom the school’s baseball field has been dedicated.
And to whom, midweek, every week, Penney still communes.
“The biggest adjustment to starting to go play shortstop again is the footwork part of it, third base is the hot corner and the ball gets on you quickly,” Penney said. “I had a few errors I remember because I was being lazy or in that third base mindset [during the switch in Cape Cod play]. I just have to keep moving my feet and gain momentum towards first base.
“It’s very easy to get in your own head, but I practice the mental game often, I have a coach that I talk to back home [Pete Moscariello]. I talk to him often, every Wednesday morning, once a week. We just talk about mental skills, mental training and toughness.”
Penney packages his mental toughness with physical acumen; he averages just one error in the field per 11 games played across his Irish career and has already been plunked by a pitch among his eight times on base through the season’s opening weekend.
The mental aptitude and fortitude, however, extend back to his Notre Dame inception; his ability to carve a role on that senior-laden, ’22 squad for which Penney reached base 37 times in just 39 games played with only 73 official at bats.
Moreover, it has shown all the way back to summer 2022, after the departure of Link Jarrett to his alma mater Florida State and the arrival of Stiffler from VCU.
“My initial commitment was definitely based on where I wanted to go to school, and it was definitely boosted by the coaching staff that Link had,” Penney, an environmental engineering major, said. “But when they left, when (Jarrett) decided to leave and Stiffler came in, I knew that I was staying because I chose to come to Notre Dame and play baseball as a bonus.
“I never want to leave this place. I’ve loved it here for my third year now, very similar to back home where I live and where I grew up. So, it doesn’t feel too far away, even though it’s almost halfway across the country. I love it here and it never crossed my mind to leave Notre Dame when the coaching change happened.”
Buoyed by the relentless work of Stiffler and his staff via the NCAA Transfer Portal and graduate-transfer additions, Notre Dame today is a more complete team than at any point a year ago.
Centerpiece at shortstop, Penney is carving a cornerstone niche in Stiffler’s program amidst the cadre of complementary newcomers.
Command presence is the term; Jack Penney is the name.
“It’s just invaluable, his work ethic and what he does and his even keel; Jack has the ability to slow his heartbeat down,” Stiffler said. “He has the ability to get into the dugout and take some deep breaths. He really does a good job with his mental awareness and his mental approach. You see other guys say, ‘OK, this stuff I’m reading about hearing about this stuff works – staying in the moment, controlling your breaths.’
“I just think that like to have a guy like that that you can turn to and emulate is huge. He keeps a real calming presence and I appreciate that about him.”